Search: crossing lines
12 Sep From Apology to Bazinga!: International Legal Rhetoric in Obama’s Speech and Putin’s Op-Ed
...the language of international law is used by both leaders. Putin’s argument plays on American fears and worries but it is framed in the rhetoric of international law. There are some scare lines, such as: “A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism.” There is a description of a “reeling” Afghanistan where “no one can say what will happen after international forces withdraw.” And, he adds, don’t forget the divisions in Iraq and Libya. It is not in “America’s long-term interest” to have U.S. military intervention...10 Apr LJIL Symposium: Where to Find the Liberal Principles of Criminal Law
...some observers that these deeper principles of criminal law are so embedded in domestic criminal law that domestic systems get them right, while the international law system runs the risk of ignoring them. True, I might have said something along these lines in Reclaiming Fundamental Principles of Criminal Law in the Darfur Case, co-authored with George Fletcher back in 2005. However, one should not overstate the point. We are talking about deeper principles of criminal law – principles that ought to be deep and abstract enough to apply across all...
10 Oct Rethinking International Law After Gaza Symposium: A Thought Experiment – What if we Tried to Organise the “Rethinking International Law after Gaza” Conference in the UK?
...and it is worth mentioning at the outset that it would have been very difficult to organise events in Turkish universities on certain ‘sensitive’ political issues. And yet, it is still worth asking what would happen if we tried to organise a two-day conference on the Question of Palestine in the UK, along the lines of the conference at Boğaziçi University, which addressed various topics including the occupation, resistance, apartheid, zionism, and the right of return. What institutional obstacles might arise, and could such an event even take place? In...
14 Aug Promoting Cultural Heritage to Strengthen Syrian National Identity and Overcome Ethnic and Religious Fragmentation
...hatreds. Although the Ba’athist regime under Hafez and Bashar al-Assad presented itself as a guardian of minority rights, its consolidation of power was rooted in sectarian patronage, most notably through the advancement of the Alawite minority within Syria’s military and intelligence institutions. This approach sowed long-term mistrust and division, fracturing national identity along ethnic and religious lines. The last 13 years of revolution and civil war, along with atrocities committed by both the regime and non-state armed groups, have deepened sectarian divisions and exposed the fragile nature of Syrian national...14 Apr Our Tax Dollars at Work
...order to drain the ink supply in company fax machines, inundating computers with e-mails causing them to crash, and tying up company phone lines to prevent legitimate calls. We can only pray that al-Qaida hasn’t obtained a copy of the Assessment. Should it ever decide to take a page from the eco-terrorists’ playbook — repurposing the cellphones it now knows we’re monitoring to prank call the Pentagon, for example — the damage to our national security could be incalculable. Keep up the good work, DHS! A weary nation thanks you...15 Dec The Noble Lie and International Politics
...the answer is something along the lines of the limitations that law has to compel or induce states on issues of critical national importance. But, why would this issue, which is certainly not controversial to or disputed by most historians, constitute a sufficiently important issue that Turkey would be willing to jeopardize its EU accession talks? I’m reminded of the noble lie in Plato’s Republic, in which it is acknowledged that all states have their origins in brutality and blood, and therefore all states create national myths about their foundings...
17 Mar International Law for a Fragile World: Ecological Risk and the Limits of Consent-Based Governance
...even as planetary systems destabilise materially. This dynamic points to a deeper problem. Consent-based governance assumes that states can meaningfully choose the level of risk they are willing to accept. Climate change demonstrates that ecological risk is not divisible along national lines – one state’s lawful development choices may irreversibly undermine another’s physical survival. When rising sea levels threaten the very existence of some states, the notion that all parties are equal risk-bearers becomes both morally and analytically untenable. In this sense, climate change exposes the limits of sovereignty as...
28 Jul One Size Does Not Fit All: Institutional Diversity and the International Law Commission’s Limits in Codifying Judicial Precedent
...for when the “settled jurisprudence” threshold is reached. Likewise, in investment arbitration, where scholars broadly recognize the emergence of jurisprudence constante, no consensus exists on which lines of reasoning should be followed or how many decisions are required to establish them. Precedential value also varies by institution. As Mr. Asada explained: “the decisions of permanent courts might … have more value as precedent than those of ad hoc tribunals” which may explain why the ICJ generally refrains from citing arbitral awards. Within investment arbitration itself, some arbitrators are considered more...
25 May Affective Justice Symposium: International Justice in Africa–Not All That Simple
...longing for the old days would keep people poor: what we were observing was development, progress. Indeed, this was what we were here to bring. Rid the government of its criminal leaders, plug the country into the world economy and teach the Sudanese how to run a country. What was I doing here if I did not believe we could help fix the place? It was all so simple. I do not recall the lines of my response, but they included the colonial encounter (the most symbolic of which, between...17 Apr Jennifer Trahan’s Cambodia Problem
...the possibility of the appointment of a group of experts to evaluate the existing evidence and propose further measures, as a means of bringing about national reconciliation, strengthening democracy and addressing the issue of individual accountability.” The group of experts recommended the UN create an ad hoc tribunal along the lines of the ICTY and ICTR, but Cambodia favoured a more internationalized tribunal based in its own judicial system. Cambodia thus asked the UN to help it draft legislation for such a tribunal. In response, “the Secretary-General entered into negotiations...